Featured Image Credit: Getty/AFP
Topics: US News, Environment, Crime, Community
Brenna Cooper
On 29 August 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the historic city of New Orleans before making its way inland.
Katrina's impact on the city would be catastrophic, with storm surges compromising the levee barriers that the city relies on to prevent flooding.
Several critically important levees in the city would collapse under the pressure, causing 80 per cent of New Orleans to be plunged into water.
The hurricane and its aftermath would go on to kill around 1,390 people and leave over a million more displaced. It would also be the most expensive natural disaster in US history, costing the government billions of dollars in damage.
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New Orleans would also face numerous obstacles in its recovery from the disaster, including a spike in violence.
The aftermath of the hurricane saw numerous exaggerated reports of killings amongst survivors begin to swirl.
Stories claiming that widespread violence, sexual assault and killings were taking place in makeshift storm shelters such as the Louisiana Superdome and the Convention Centre fed into a narrative of a city out of control.
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It would eventually emerge that such reports had been grossly exaggerated.
Yes, there had been a shortage of supplies, and a breakdown in plumbing meant that conditions for the 30,000 people sheltering in the Superdome became dire. However, the final death count was just six people, with four deaths from natural causes, one person dying from an overdose and another by suicide.
Meanwhile, there would be four deaths out of the 20,000 to 25,000 people at the Convention Centre, with just one being reported as a homicide (per The Seattle Times).
Outside of the Superdome and Convention Centre, however, things became less clear-cut.
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According to NBC News, 'at least 21' out of the 1,090 bodies recovered in New Orleans and nearby areas showed signs of foul play.
"We don’t know if they are suicide or murder or accident," former New Orleans coroner Dr. Frank Minyard told the outlet back in 2005. "We may never know."
In the two decades following Katrina, extensive efforts have been made to piece together what actually happened in the city, with stories of vigilante groups, racially motivated killings and police violence coming to the forefront.
According to The New York Times, armed gangs of white men began shooting at black refugees evacuating Algiers Point. One man, Roland J. Bourgeois Jr., would later be arrested and jailed for his role in racially motivated violence in the area back in 2019.
Another high-profile case took place on Danziger Bridge, where officers from the New Orleans Police Department shot and killed two civilians - 17-year-old James Brissette and 40-year-old Ronald Madison - crossing the bridge and injured four more.
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Officers involved would initially attempt to cover up the shootings by claiming they'd been forced to fire in self-defence. Four NOPD officers were ultimately found guilty of firearm offences, while a fifth was convicted for the alleged cover-up, and sentenced in 2016, 11 years after the shootings.
Another killing in the aftermath of Katrina was that of Henry Glover.
An African American man living in the neighbourhood of Algiers, Glover was shot and killed on 2 September 2005 while out gathering supplies for his family. The 31-year-old's charred body was later discovered in a destroyed vehicle close to a police station.
A rookie police officer, David Warren, was later charged with the shooting in 2011 and jailed for 25 years; however, this was later overturned just two years later (via PBS).
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Meanwhile, a second officer, Gregory McRae, was handed a 17-year sentence for obstruction of justice. He was later resentenced and ultimately released in 2021.